This invention relates to impact printers, and more specifically, it relates to a means for adjusting the impact face of the associated print hammer so as to be precisely positioned at impact and thereby be capable of accurately printing characters in special printing styles or fonts, like E13-B, for example.
During the processing of financial documents, like checks, by financial institutions, like banks, a point is reached in the processing at which the monetary amount of each check is printed on the front of the check in the area below the signature line; this process is generally referred to as "encoding". The monetary amount is printed on the check in a magnetic-type ink which is generally referred to as "MICR" ink, with "MICR" being an acronym for "magnetic ink character recognition." Banks in the U.S.A. generally use the E13-B font or style mentioned in the encoding process.
Because the characters produced in the E13--B font are read magnetically, it is necessary that the characters be precisely printed in MICR ink in order that they be read accurately at subsequent processing operations. If the impact face of the print hammer is not properly aligned with the character to be printed during the printing operation, improperly printed characters will result, and misreading or non-reading of data will occur at subsequent processing operations.
Some known techniques for aligning the impact face of the print hammer of an impact-type printer with the character to be printed are performed by using shims, bending the print hammer beam, and changing the pivot point of the print hammer beam. These known techniques require a fairly-skilled operator to perform, and the techniques are time-consuming.